Patrick Brown accused by 5 councillors of shutting down Brampton meeting to avoid scrutiny

A group of councillors have accused Conservative leadership hopeful — and Brampton mayor — Patrick Brown of deliberately scuppering a council meeting to avoid scrutiny.

A regular meeting of Brampton city council was due to take place Wednesday but could not begin after the minimum number of councillors, six, failed to attend.

A group of five councillors who have aligned against Brown accused the mayor of deliberately bringing the meeting to “a grinding halt.”

Jeff Bowman, Gurpreet Dhillon, Pat Fortini, Martin Medeiros and Doug Whillans all attended the meeting where council was planning to appoint former councillor Elaine Moore to takeover Charmaine Williams’ council seat.

Williams resigned after she won Brampton Centre for the PC Party of Ontario in the provincial election on June 2.

She had aligned with Bowman, Dhillon, Fortini, Medeiros and Whillans on key votes in the past.

Moore’s appointment was opposed by Brown, along with councillors Michael Palleschi, Rowena Santos, Harkirat Singh and Paul Vicente, at a previous council meeting. All five failed to attend Wednesday’s meeting, forcing it to be abandoned after a fruitless 30-minute wait.

In a statement emailed to Global News on Thursday, Brown and four council members –Michael Palleschi, Rowena Santos, Harkirat Singh and Paul Vincente – said Ontario municipal legislation requires that council wait until an empty sear is declared vacant “before making a decision on how to fill it.”

“Unfortunately, prior to the June 2^nd provincial election, on May 31, during a last-minute Special Council Meeting that was called by a group of six Councillors, an unprecedented motion contrary to the Ontario Municipal Act was brought forward to pre-assign the seat for Ward 7 & 8 even though the seat was not yet vacant,” the statement read.

The mayor and councilors said the city clerk and solicitor “advised against this decision as it was contrary to the Ontario Municipal Act which governs municipalities.”

According to the statement, the City Clerk Peter Fay said the motion was “premature and not consistent with the Municipal Act, as it is written today.”

“Council has a fiduciary duty to ensure that decisions are carried out in accordance with the law; If not, the validity of Council’s decisions may be called into question and every decision made henceforth can be challenged in court placing Council’s integrity at risk,”  the statement read.

The mayor and councillors said city council “continues to have important decisions to make.”

“These decisions cannot be placed in legal limbo by the pre-assignment of a council seat contrary to the clear rules of the Ontario Municipal Act,” the statement said.

Brown and the other signatories said they are working to “get through this impasse as quickly as possible” with the assistance of the city clerk and ministry of municipal affairs.

With Moore’s appointment not finalized, neither group of five has a clear majority and both could theoretically tank council meetings by refusing to attend.

During a fierce debate over governance and staffing in February, Bowman, Dhillon, Medeiros, Fortini, Whillans and Williams issued a statement alleging Brown’s actions meant democracy in Brampton was “under siege.” The six councillors refused to attend a February meeting, causing it to be called off.

The two blocks of councillors formed publicly in 2022 over several key issues, including the city’s former chief administrative officer David Barrick and a plan to create a university in the city titled BramptonU.

“The city council meeting scheduled for June 15 has failed to achieve quorum,” city clerk Peter Fay said.

The five councillors who were there issued a statement after the meeting that called the absences of Brown and the four councillors a “stunt.”

“When Patrick Brown and his council followers don’t get their own way, they resort to tactics that put democracy under siege,” they said.

Brampton is Canada’s ninth-largest city.

Councillors recently ordered a forensic audit of the activity and contracts around the stalled plan to create a university, after it was revealed contracts for the project were won by people with ties to Brown and Santos.

“Brown’s friends have been getting lucrative contracts for work that was never completed,” the statement from councillors alleged. They also claimed Brown was using taxpayer-funded city staff for his leadership campaign.

“If the Mayor and these Councillors are not held accountable for their actions today they will continue to use this abusive tactic of not showing up to Council meetings to avoid the results of important audits and investigations from being made public,” said the statement released Wednesday.